Moroccomoose wrote:And I also agree with Jack (in a previous post which was mentioned above) about placing the mono check speaker somewhere away from the mains stereo pair (and definitely not central!).

H

This is interesting. I get it that it would be good for a 'grotbox' type speaker(s) to be somewhere away from your usual listening position for a different perspective, but the Mixcube aren't really that kind of lo-fi cheap speaker are they? The way I see it, it's a high quality, accurate monitor within its limited frequency range, and serves a different purpose to a cheap speaker 'off to the side'. As such, I want it in my usual mixing environment and position to make critical decisions.

Mine is indeed placed central right between my main pair (where you'd probably usually have a screen), but you've made me question the placement now - should I think about moving it?

Sorry to bump this, but anyone have any more insight on the above? I'm curious!

My personal preference is to put it off to the side as it forces me to listen in a different way, not least because often I'll end up looking away from the screens so I really do listen with my ears and not my eyes!

Jack Ruston wrote:Re the mix cubes - put them together, over to the side, behind you, on a shelf somewhere, on the floor even...anywhere but front and centre. The point of them is that you get a valuable perspective shift. Use them to reference not only the small speaker, but the new perspective, the distant or suboptimal position. People don't sit in front of their radio, on axis at ear level. In the first few seconds after you switch, there's a lot of info about the translation, which you very quickly adjust to.

Jack Ruston wrote:Re the mix cubes - put them together, over to the side, behind you, on a shelf somewhere, on the floor even...anywhere but front and centre. The point of them is that you get a valuable perspective shift. Use them to reference not only the small speaker, but the new perspective, the distant or suboptimal position. People don't sit in front of their radio, on axis at ear level. In the first few seconds after you switch, there's a lot of info about the translation, which you very quickly adjust to.

Isn't this again unfairly treating the Mixcube as an inferior/low quality 'grot box' type speaker? I don't think that's what the Mixcube is - I think it is a high-quality but limited speaker. What it does, it does very well, so why compromise its positioning? Isn't it the grotboxes that should be placed William Nilliam any which way?

Ramirez wrote:Isn't this again unfairly treating the Mixcube as an inferior/low quality 'grot box' type speaker? I don't think that's what the Mixcube is - I think it is a high-quality but limited speaker. What it does, it does very well, so why compromise its positioning? Isn't it the grotboxes that should be placed William Nilliam any which way?

As I said, you can place it wherever you like for whatever works for you. There is no absolute right/wrong here. And you can think of it in whatever way suits your mindset. We're just offering our opinions in answer to your question based on our practical experiences.

But for me, the terms 'high-quality' and 'but limited' are mutually incompatible, and I dont see where any 'unfairness' comes into it, either! For me (and apparently, Jack, too), placing it to the side isn't a 'compromise' at all; I see it as an additional benefit which adds something usefully different to the sound presented by the main monitors. I use it to give a different perspective, not to duplicate the main monitoring.

The Mixcube is a very useful tool without question. How you choose to use it, and how it benefits your workflow is really down to you.

To be clear, I wasn't trying to be challenging here - sorry if it came across that way. I simply hadn't given the matter much thought until now and wondered about the reasoning behind some of the posts.

And yes, the same thing did cross my mind when typing "high quality" and "limited" in the same sentence...! But I think in areas other than bandwidth, the Mixcube is a high-quality, good performing speaker deserving of a decent listening environment, no?

Ramirez wrote:To be clear, I wasn't trying to be challenging here - sorry if it came across that way.

Not at all. I understand where you're coming from.

I think in areas other than bandwidth, the Mixcube is a high-quality, good performing speaker deserving of a decent listening environment, no?

Yes, it's a good speaker for what it is. I don't see placing it to the side as giving it a poor environment, just a different one... :-) And different is important in adding useful information And perspective -- at least to me.

Ramirez wrote:To be clear, I wasn't trying to be challenging here - sorry if it came across that way.

Not at all. I understand where you're coming from.

I think in areas other than bandwidth, the Mixcube is a high-quality, good performing speaker deserving of a decent listening environment, no?

Yes, it's a good speaker for what it is. I don't see placing it to the side as giving it a poor environment, just a different one... :-) And different is important in adding useful information And perspective -- at least to me.

H

Good point, well made! Mine is staying central for now though, simply as a matter of convenience (I don't have a big ugly screen taking up that space!)

You can of course always move it around to different positions to see if you do get any different information from it.

If you don't, then one position is fine for you. If you do, then chose two or three positions and try tweaking your mix so it sounds good in all the positions (but if you struggle to do that, then I'd suggest favouring the in-front position as we expect things to sound a bit different when hearing from an angle).

FWIW my Avantone lives directly between my main speakers. I choose that way because it presents the least disruption to me when I flip over to it - and that helps me to better appreciate the difference it presents to my main monitors.

The Elf wrote:Some DAWs (and I know Cubase does, because it's my weapon of choice) will let you define your speaker as a designated mono monitor destination and it will take care of the summing automatically.

...and if you go to File>Preferences>VST>Control Room you can change the default device port exclusivity, allowing you to use your main speaker pair for both stereo and single-speaker mono. Very handy, that — not the same as single point-source mono, but better than relying on the phantom centre image for mono, and rather cheaper than a dedicated speaker.

For any DAW that doesn't offer this in such dedicated fashion, it's easy enough to set up a mono bus routed to one speaker that will do the same job.